Action Script not reading special Characters in a string

I created a username and password.

The password has to have a special character (e.g. !@#$%^&*) as part of their password. The problem I am experiencing is that Actions Script cannot read a lot of special characters e.g. 1234#. The # plays havoc with the string.

My question is how can Action Script read this string value as a #? How can I get Action Script to read these special characters without having a negative impact on the code?

Here is an example of my code:

<fx:Declarations>

<s:HTTPService id="handleRequestLogin" result="feedRequestLoginService_resultHandler(event)" resultFormat="e4x" fault="faultHandler(event)" showBusyCursor="true"/>

</fx:Declarations>

private function login():void

{

feedRequestLogin="http://www.server.com/api/xml?action=login&login=" + tiLogin.text + "&password=" + escape(tiPassword.text);

handleRequestLogin.url=feedRequestLogin;

handleRequestLogin.send();

}

Thank you